Vaccines will soon be available for teachers — but what comes next is complicated.
Teachers are near the front of the line to receive vaccines. Does that mean schools are close to returning to a pre-Covid normality? Not exactly.
Our colleagues Eliza Shapiro and Shawn Hubler reported this week that it’s probably too early for parents to get their hopes up that public schools will throw open their doors anytime soon.
Beyond health care workers, who are first in line, there are an estimated 87 million Americans working in essential sectors like food and agriculture, manufacturing and law enforcement. That includes the country’s three million teachers, but the exact pecking order will vary from state to state — and may not account for the school nurses, janitors, cafeteria workers and other people who are also crucial to reopening classrooms.
Public health experts disagree as to whether teachers should get early vaccine access. Some argue that teachers are safer at work than many other essential workers, since there has been little evidence that schools can stoke community transmission.
Given the complicated logistics and limited supply of vaccines, inoculating essential workers could last well into spring. Even then, schools will probably need to continue requiring masks and distancing students, which could make full-time in-person education an impossibility in many districts.
(As we’ve reported, students are unlikely to receive shots before the fall because pediatric trials have only recently begun. And let’s not forget that thousands of teachers have already been showing up to work in classrooms for months without vaccination.)
“The vaccine provides a light at the end of the tunnel for many parents who are trying to work, do remote school and take care of their families,” said our colleague Jessica Grose, The Times’s Parenting columnist. “But there’s still considerable anxiety about how the months ahead might play out.”
School superintendents and union leaders have hesitated to make any sweeping promises. Some teachers worry about the vaccine itself. Others worry their districts may force them to take it as a requirement for keeping their jobs.
“Some don’t want to go back unless there is a vaccine, and others absolutely don’t believe in it,” said Marie Neisess, president of the Clark County Education Association, which represents more than 18,000 educators in Nevada.
Austin Beutner, Los Angeles’s superintendent, said he would like to use the district’s extensive testing infrastructure to systematically vaccinate teachers, school nurses and others. But he does not expect a return to pre-pandemic conditions until the end of 2021.
All in all, the next few months could be complicated. Cases and deaths will most likely stay at high levels through the winter, and it’s very possible that bitter fights about vaccines could result in more bitter political battles and uncertainty.
“As a parent, I have given up on this school year,” Jessica said. “But do I also need to be worried about fall 2021?”
Are snow days canceled now?
That depends on where you live.
There’s a large wintry storm about to hit the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. But in New York City, no matter how much snow falls, public school students won’t get the day off. With virtual learning now commonplace, Mayor Bill de Blasio said snow days are a “thing of the past.”
Philadelphia, Denver, Omaha and many other cities have similar decisions.
“I’m kind of sad for the kids on the one hand,” de Blasio said. “On the other hand, we’ve got a lot of learning that needs to be done and a lot of catching up.”
In some districts, the end of snow days could be permanent: Many, if not all, schools now have procedures in place for online learning, which could be used for inclement weather days even after the pandemic ends.
There are some holdouts: Bondy Shay Gibson, the superintendent of Jefferson County schools in West Virginia, went viral with a letter to parents announcing that school is canceled on Thursday.
“For just a moment, we can all let go of the worry of making up for the many things we missed by making sure this is one thing our kids won’t lose this year,” he wrote. “We will return to the serious and urgent business of growing up on Thursday, but for tomorrow … go build a snowman.”
On this important debate, your newsletter authors are not in complete harmony. Amelia, more recently a kid, could not be more pro-snowday. Well into high school, she reveled in soaked socks and slushy snowballs.
Adam, with young kids of his own, is more of a Grinch about the stress of sorting out child care at the last minute. But he admits that the West Virginia superintendent may have warmed his icy heart a few degrees. Amelia, do you want to build a snowman?
Around the country
College update
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Essential workers in Michigan have until the end of the year to apply for free community college tuition. Some 100,000 have applied already.
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Public universities in Kansas struggling to balance their budgets in the pandemic might cut majors that draw few students, like history and mathematics.
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In Pennsylvania, college faculty members are anxious and burned out after a stressful semester.
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A professor remembered: Michael Kuenstle, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Florida, died of complications from the coronavirus on Saturday. He was not teaching in-person and had no on-campus duties this semester, a university spokesman told The Chronicle of Higher Education.
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A good read: Haden MacDougall, a high school senior in Virginia, is applying to college. That’s always hard. Right now, it’s even harder. “I’m really flustered about it, and I think a lot of my friends are too,” he said. “We haven’t had all the other tools that were given to us when the pandemic wasn’t in full swing.”
K-12 update
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More than 500 teachers in Georgia, Texas and other states called in sick on Tuesday as part of a nationwide protest.
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The teacher shortage is getting dire: In November, public-school employment hit its lowest level since 2000, The Wall Street Journal reported.
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Montgomery County, Md., delayed a phased reopening of students back to classrooms until February.
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In Ludowici, Ga., both Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus tested positive after they attended a Christmas parade, exposing an estimated 50 children, who are now being asked to attend school remotely.
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As families face eviction and job loss, there’s been a spike in students changing schools and districts in the middle of the year, The 74 reported.
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Nearly a quarter of high school students in Boston did not log on “on any given day this fall,” The Boston Globe reported. Eighteen percent of students in grades six to 12 failed English in the first academic quarter, compared with 12.4 percent last year.
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An opinion: Richard Carranza, Austin Beutner and Janice Jackson lead the three largest school districts in the United States: New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. They wrote a joint opinion piece in The Washington Post: “We need a Marshall Plan for our schools. And we need it now.”
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A good read: This piece, by Erin Einhorn in NBC News, bluntly lays out the many challenges children face, including mental health issues, food insecurity and failing grades. One chilling note: “An estimated 3 million vulnerable students — who are homeless, in foster care, have disabilities or are learning English — appear to not be in school at all.”
Tip: A joint holiday newsletter
A few sends ago, we suggested helping your kids become reporters with a “state of the block” project. So many of you sent us examples of those projects — classroom magazines and family nature logs. (Thank you — we read them all.)
If you’re late in sending out holiday cards, enlist your kids in a last-minute recap of your family’s year. Our colleague J. D. Biersdorfer has helpful tips for assembling a holiday newsletter.
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